©martinepierquin

Reflections from leading creative sessions for Three Score Dance

There’s something potent about working with older artists.
Not just life experience, but a willingness, or perhaps a necessity, to dive straight into the investigative space. To offer up creativity freely because it really matters. Artistic expression and meaning matters.

I’ve recently been leading movement sessions again with a group of 55+ practitioners, exploring themes of chaos, disorientation, and escape. It was originally part of a larger project I had planned, culminating in some live work and offerings, but funding struggles have put that on the back burner for now. In a way that left the creative space more open and malleable.

What emerged wasn’t tidy- it provoked more questions than answers. A playful, unformed mess of beginnings.

Creating the Conditions

First things first... set some parameters so we can all relax!
We began by drawing up a mindfulness agreement. Not rules in the traditional sense, more like a shared commitment to care, to be present, look after yourself and each other, honour desires and boundaries.

These simple, generous structures create just enough safety to take risks.
I’ve found this kind of framing shifts the dynamic from instruction to invitation, inviting each person to lead from within.

Starting in the Body

My creative process always begins in the body, whether I’m choreographing, writing, or shaping something that might one day become performance.
My entry point is to dive deep into physical experience. It’s a method, or philosophy, to trust what the body knows first.

The aim is partly attention I guess, and staying with sensation long enough for the unfamiliar to surface.

Ann Cooper-Albright writes about improvisation beautifully in How to Land: Finding Ground in an Unstable World:

“…willingness to enter the open space (of life, as well as the dance studio) and move in the face of uncertainty... the ability to be at once external and internal- both available to what is happening in the world around you and intensely grounded in the sensation of one’s ongoing experience.”

That willingness- to not know, to feel our way through- feels essential to stay connected to right now. In art. In politics. In how we relate.

She also speaks of disorientation as a necessity for movement (both metaphorical and literal). I keep returning to that. Disorientation as power. To inform and ultimately transform.

Shaping the Sessions

Each week, our somatic explorations had a different focus- connective tissue, tension/release, etc. With movement and contact work shifting into drawing, writing, and reflective tasks.

These became a springboard into wider philosophical questions, connecting the physical to the thematic.
For example, Tension and Release evolved into: Rules for survival. What do we hold on to? What are the conditions we need to let go or support change?

I have been experimenting with creating some Body Weather-inspired cycles (a practice developed by Japanese dancer and choreographer Min Tanaka), something that stayed with me from my MA ‘Embodied Practice’ module.

One score took the group through elemental states:

Clay- soft, malleable.
It rains- wet clay, slippery, unstable.
Sun dries- clay cracks, hardens.
Wind lifts- dust scatters, disperses.
Eventually, it settles as cardboard.

As we began to independently repeat the cycle, certain patterns, textures and sensations lingered. Began to stick.
Participants began shaping their own movement journeys. Then they were asked: If this were an artwork, how would you frame it?

What surfaced was a series of mini-installations, some with accompanying writing, drawings, or images. From there, we began to work with the idea of gentle provocations and disruptions- offering each other options to adapt, reframe, and develop the cycles.

In the last couple sessions I introduced a more autobiographical exploration.

“Bring a small item of meaning with you to the next creative session. It could be anything… item of clothing, ornament, book, photo, something from nature, food… anything! We are going to work with it in the session. Make sure it is something you connect to in some way but you feel comfortable to bring and use as a creative tool”.

We utilised felt connections to these tangible items as a way in to a more personal somatic exploration, and our process over time opened various entry points to shaping movement, text, sound, visual or performative material. This culminated in everyone sharing an offering, the beginning of an idea.

I’ll finish with some images and reflections from the group and a huge thank you to Julian, Martine, Maxine, Ruth, A, Josie, Phoene.